Kitopi
User centered design of innovative food delivery app
User centered design of innovative food delivery app
End-to-end design of an innovative cloud kitchen food app
Kitopi is currently the Middle East’s largest managed cloud kitchen platform and is the MENA region’s third unicorn, valued at over $1bn. Prior to our work with them, they did not have a standalone meal delivery app for Kitopi customers to order from - instead, users had to order either directly from the Kitopi website or via third-party food aggregator apps such as Deliveroo or Talabat.
The objective was to design an end-to-end food app, but unique to other food aggregators with notable USP’s. Given Kitopi’s flexibility as a cloud kitchen, they wanted to be able to provide users with the unique control of ordering from multiple “restaurants” at the same time as well as having a fully personalised food app experience.
DOT was responsible for design of the end-to-end food delivery app - we were able to create a customer-centric product strategy and roadmap with unique features such as shared carts, dietary requirement consideration, and the inclusion of a ‘food wall’ for inspiration.
Over 300 wireframe screens, dozens of standup meetings, and 1000+ man hours later, we designed something we are immensely proud of!
It took a full-stack team of UX designers, researchers, and UI designers, to collaborate on this project over the span of 4 months, starting from focus group discussions for pain point definition and concept validation to usability testing of the final high-fidelity prototype. Weekly collaborations and touchpoints with the Kitopi clients ensured business goals were met throughout the design and testing process.
The purpose of the discovery phase was to better understand business needs (through stakeholder workshops) and user needs (through focus groups), as well as getting a clearer picture of current successful indirect competitors (given the nature of the app, there was no true “direct” competitor).
Once the basic needs and potential pain points were identified, we began defining solutions through a feature roadmap, IA, wireframes, and UX / UI design.
Once the UI designs were completed - it was time to test! By creating a prototype, the objective of usability testing was to validate the flow for ordering, get feedback on UX of the homepage (ensure delight), and identify areas of friction which could be iterated for further improvement.
Once completed, the key findings were played back to the Kitopi team where we presented the issues as well as recommendations.
Several iterations were made based on user feedback during the UT sessions, and a few are highlighted below:
During UT’s, many users were delighted with the ability to view calories and macros - we moved calories + macros to the top of the dietary preference list while expanding them visually so that it did not get lost within the design.
Users were frustrated and confused by the large paragraph of text when inviting friends to join the order. By explicitly stating that it was a group order while highlighting key points of the group order with iconography and minimal text, we were able to resolve this issue.
The food wall introduction confused users because they assumed the content was repeated and scrollable. Putting the content into mock-up screens and providing users with the choice to view the Food Wall gave users more control, clarity, and flexibility.
Development
The UI team exported all components via Zeplin and liaised with developers and PM to manage the deliveries and queries throughout the process. The UI team gave feedback on best practices and adapted the designs or components when needed.
Delivery
From kick-off to delivery, it took us 4 months - 3 months of discovery and definition and design and then around 1 months for development, QA and optimisations.
This project was a mammoth task from start to finish - from discovery to design to usability testing to handover, we are exceptionally proud of the final outcome for Kitopi’s V1 app.
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